Following an assurance from Health Minister B. Sriramulu that their demand for regularisation of services will be taken up in the next Cabinet meeting, the 507 contract doctors who met the Minister on Wednesday to submit resignations en masse in protest have now deferred their decision till July 1. Demanding regularisation of their services, the 507 contract doctors working in various primary health centres run by the Health Department for years had arrived in the city on Wednesday to submit resignations. .
“Although services of 2,000 doctors have been regularised from 2002 to 2016, 507 of us have been left out due to technical reasons. While we have been working on a par with permanent doctors, our salaries are lesser. Moreover, now the government has issued a notification calling for appointment of doctors. When there are over 2,000 vacancies, why are our services not regularised,” asked Nithin Kumar, doctor working in a PHC in Hassan. “Mr. Sriramulu has assured that the process of increasing salaries from ₹45,000 to ₹67,000 has begun. Moreover, he has also assured us that our demand for regularisation will be placed in the next Cabinet and measures will be initiated to rectify the technical hurdles,” he said.
“We also met Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwathnarayan and he has also assured us that he will speak to the Chief Minister. He has also got us an appointment with the Chief Minister on Thursday. Following this, we have decided to defer our mass resignation move till July 1,” said Vinay Manjunath, a doctor from a PHC in Chickballapur and member of the Karnataka Government Medical Officers Association.
